Halloween Sparks
by LupinLover99
Summary: Tonks is sent on a mission for the Order on Halloween night and finds more than dust and ghosts in an old castle.


A/N: This fic was written for a Halloween challenge at the LiveJournal community, Metamorfic Moon. This community can be found at: community./metamorficmoon

My prompts were: Day of Spectres, Avis, and gen/drama

**Halloween Sparks**

As she re-materialized after apparating, Tonks looked around to survey the area in which she would be doing her watch. It was a rather disturbing prospect to be staying here all night. She found herself in a forest a few yards away from a ghostly looking castle. Tonks shuddered involuntarily at the sight. It was absolutely chilling and she was reminded of ghost stories her granddad used to tell her when she spent the night. She recalled ghostly tales of witches who had lost their lives on the bridge near her grandparents' home and eerie tales of spectres rising up from the nearby cemetery. Looking back on it, she was always rather frightened of her grandparents' home and her parents could never figure out why.

Turning her mind back to the task at hand, she could not fathom why Moody wanted her to stand watch at this abandoned castle. There was no one for miles!

Oh well, she thought. If Moody wanted her here, he must have a good reason for sending her. He must have gotten a tip or something. She wouldn't be surprised if that were the case; Moody was always sending agents of the Order on missions for reasons unbeknownst to them until they found themselves in the face of danger. Tonks shuddered again; this was an awful place to come up against a Death Eater. She was sure there were all sorts of dark hallways and corners in this castle that would be treacherous to traverse. She would have to be on her guard.

Finally, she steeled herself to enter the large, stone, foreboding building in front of her. The leaves crunched beneath her combat boots and a wind suddenly flew by her, lifting the leaves in a swirl around her. She pulled her purple jacket closer to her body for protection. Tonks had her Auror face on but the clench in her stomach betrayed her feeling of uneasiness. She took a few deep breaths and kept walking, unable to banish the feeling of being a heroine (or victim) in a horror novel. The door was a thick, heavy wooden one that creaked when Tonks pulled it open. A cloud of dust poofed out of the entrance to the castle. Tonks waved her hand in front of her face, coughing and took her first step into the frightening ruins. She winced as her foot touched the wooden slat floor as though something was going to happen to her now that she was inside. However, nothing happened so she continued inside the castle.

It seemed that working with Moody was beginning to affect her paranoia level. She wasn't sure if it was that or the fact that all sorts of spooky factors coincided on this day but she was feeling undue fear. After all, she was fully qualified Auror who could handle anything thrown at her! It sounded quite convincing in her head when she sat at home but as she stood in this musty, dusty castle, it didn't sound quite so strong an argument. It was Halloween and despite the fact she was a witch, the holiday always kind of spooked her and now she found herself in a scary, old castle on the spookiest night of the year. She should have just swallowed her pride and told Moody she wanted to trade with someone else's watch duty. But no, she was too bloody proud to do something like that.

"Lumos," she murmured, lighting the tip of her wand with the simple spell. She held the beam of light in front of her to light her way. She was just beginning to feel as though there really was nothing to be afraid of when something leaped in front of her in the hallway.

She jumped back about two feet when she saw the figure was transparent. As Tonks' luck would have it, she jumped right onto a loose board in the floor. The heel of her boot caught the wood and she toppled backwards with a thump. Shaking the stars out of her eyes, she noticed the transparent figure was actually the spectre of a wolf.

"What the--?" she began, but she did not finish her question as a figure stepped out of the shadow and into the hallway behind the wolf. Her Auror instinct kicked in and she shouted the first spell that came into her mind.

"Avis!"

A flock of small, twittering birds flew out of the end of her wand and flew at the figure still in shadow.

"Ah!" the figure cried out, waving its arms to stave off the attacking birds. "Call them off, Tonks!"

"Who is it?" she asked, determined not to fall into a trap.

"It's me, Remus!" said the figure, still flapping its arms in a humorous way.

"Oh!" she exclaimed and muttered the counter-spell for 'Avis'. The birds retreated from their prey and vanished into thin air. The castle hallway was once again eerily quiet.

She directed her wand light to the figure and saw that it was, in fact, Remus. He stood there with a quirked eyebrow, brushing off his robe fronts.

"I'm so sorry, Remus!" said Tonks, covering her mouth to stop herself from laughing at the idea of him being attacked by those birds.

"Quite all right, Nymphadora. You were right to attack me, I could have been a Death Eater."

Tonks almost laughed at his calm and even tone but instead she said, "Don't call me Nymphadora."

"I apologize." he said, lighting his wand as well.

Tonks wiped her forehead, her heart was still racing. "You really startled me there but I'm sorry I didn't recognize your Patronus."

"That's all right," he said, waving a hand. "It was foolish of me. You were bound to be jumpy in here, I merely thought my Patronus would... nevermind, there are no excuses for my foolishness."

"Remus, it's all right, really," said Tonks, approaching Remus. "I am feeling jumpy but I feel a bit better now that you're here. Erm, why are you here?"

"Moody sent me, it's a mission."

Tonks frowned, "Moody sent me on a mission here. Why didn't he tell me you'd be here as well? We could have come together!"

"I wouldn't know, Mad-Eye's leading tactics escape me. Did he tell you what to expect here?"

"No, I just assumed he had gotten an inside tip about something going on here tonight."

"Hmm," Remus rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I suppose that's possible."

"Yes," replied Tonks. They stood there for a while in relative silence other than the whipping of the wind outside the castle.

Tonks always felt a bit uneasy and awkward around Remus. To be honest, he made her feel a bit dim. He was so experienced and had even been a professor and she had the distinct feeling he did not like her. They had first met a few months ago when the Order had reconvened at Grimmauld Place. To be honest, Tonks had been struck by his all-around adorableness and because of this she'd been nervous, tripped on her own shoelace, catapulted into Remus and he had spilled his tea on his favorite cardigan. He'd said that he wasn't bothered by it but he overheard him later telling Sirius that he had a clumsy cousin.

"Erm, well, shall we patrol a bit?" she asked him, at a loss for anything else to talk about.

"Yes, that sounds good," he said and they started walking down the hall side by side with their wands held in front of them to light the path.

Oh, the silence was so dreadfully awkward and Tonks wished it would end. She wished she could think of something to say to him. He smelled so good walking so close to her. Her arm brushed his ever so briefly and his head snapped to face her. She shrugged and he actually smiled at her.

"So, are you fond of Halloween?" he asked.

"Erm," Tonks tried to decide quickly if saying that she didn't would hurt her image.

Remus chuckled, correctly guessing the meaning of Tonks' "erm". "Neither do I,"

"Really?" asked Tonks, looking up at him.

"Yes. I suppose it's leftover trauma of my time with the marauders. They took Halloween very seriously, you know, and James and Sirius often took it upon themselves to play tricks on Peter and I. They tended to involve the Shrieking Shack and a sack of some type of unpleasant creature."

Remus shuddered but Tonks couldn't contain her laughter at the though of Remus running from an open sack of snakes. Her giggle echoed around the empty hallway and she covered her mouth quickly. Remus looked at her questioningly.

"You find my misfortune funny?" he asked in a serious voice but Tonks noticed one side of his mouth quirking upward.

Still trying to hold in her laughter Tonks replied, "No, of course not!"

"Well, let's hear your Halloween stories of woe, then."

"Erm..." Tonks tried desperately to think of something that wasn't too embarrassing but, finding nothing, she blurted out the first memory she could recall. "Once I dressed up as a pixie and my wings got caught in someone's front door. I spent about five minutes trying to yank them back out again but it was no use and I fell right on my backside in front of all the neighborhood children."

Tonks blushed the whole way through her story and when she was finished, she would have sworn she heard Remus let out a chuckle but he said, "That's terrible. I'm sure you were an adorable pixie either way."

Tonks beamed, "Really?"

"Certainly."

There were a few moments of silence when Tonks had to think that perhaps he didn't dislike her so much. "What was your most embarrassing costume?"

Remus brows knit together as though he was thinking back to the time of his childhood. "Well...there was this one year where...no, nevermind."

"Oh, that's not fair! I told you my awful pixie story now you've got to return the favor!"

Remus sighed. "All right, just don't mention it to Sirius. I rather think he's forgotten and I'd like to keep it that way. One year Sirius got it into his head to dress up as a centaur. All he needed was a back end."

There was no way Tonks could keep her laughter inside her this time. The peals of laughter that issued from her mouth bounced off the walls of the castle and soon she was doubled up on the floor.

"I see that you've guessed who was volunteered for back end duty."

"Oh, Remus...I'm so sorry...but that was...hilarious!" she managed to choke out between guffaws.

"Erm, here." Tonks looked up and saw that Remus was crouching level with her, handing her her wand that she had evidently dropped. His eyes were so blue and they seemed to be boring into her. She stopped laughing immediately.

"Thank you," she said softly, unable to tear her eyes from Remus'.

Remus, on the other hand, seemed perfectly able to tear his eyes from hers. He stood up, clearing his throat. "Shall we press on?"

Tonks cleared her throat as well and had to shake her head a bit to rid herself of the spell Remus seemed to have been casting on her. "Yes, indeed."

"There doesn't seem to be anything in this castle," remarked Remus.

"No, there doesn't. Do you suppose Moody gave us this mission so that we would miss out on the Halloween party at Grimmauld?"

Remus smiled knowingly at her, "No, I think he had another reason for sending us. Let's go."

"We're just going to leave?"

"Well, yes, you said yourself there was nothing here."

"Well..." Tonks tried desperately to think of a way to get Remus to stay here with her. She was really enjoying spending time with him and here there was no Sirius to interrupt their conversation. "If they wanted to keep us from the party then we should have our own party here!"

"Tonks..."

"No. We'll have a gay time of it, come on. We just need to conjure some refreshments and we can sit here and keep on talking. It'll be fun, come on."

"Tonks," began Remus, shaking his head. "They didn't send us to keep us away from their punch and candy corn."

"Then why did they send us, smarty-pants?" asked Tonks with her hands on her hips.

Remus leaned close to her conspiratorially, "They sent us here to set us up."

Tonks shivered from his words and the breeze they sent towards her ear. "You mean, like...for a date?"

Remus laughed, "Yes!" He hesitated for a moment and then said, "Can you think of a more ridiculous notion?"

"Ha ha...no." said Tonks, giggling only half-heartedly. Obviously Remus didn't want to be here with her. "Boy, they sure got us."

"I know." Remus ran a hand over his face. "Ah, well, they'll have a laugh when we return. Come on."

"Right, let's go." said Tonks, mechanically latching on to Remus' arm and preparing herself for the squeeze of apparation. When it came it couldn't compare to the squeeze in her stomach at the thought that Remus really didn't like her. She was beginning to have fun when they were discussing their various Halloween disasters, it seemed that perhaps they had something in common after all. Now she could see that her hopes had been ever so false. She'd been foolish to think he would be interested in her.

Soon they landed on the ledge just before the door to Grimmauld Place. Remus turned to Tonks before she turned the knob, "Remember, not a word to Sirius about the centaur."

Tonks made a motion as though she were locking her mouth with a key and Remus smiled. Tonks had to lock her knees to keep them from going weak at his smile. Despite his rudeness in the castle he could still make her woozy. She hated that.

They entered the front hall of the creaky old house and heard voices coming from the basement kitchen. Remus took Tonks' coat and hung it on a peg for her. She couldn't help feeling pleased at this gentlemanly gesture. He motioned for her to follow him and they started towards the kitchen.

"Hey!" exclaimed Sirius when they entered the brightly lit room. "Welcome back!"

"Hello all," said Remus, going to investigate the pumpkin juice. Sirius' face fell as he noticed that Tonks was not smiling and she and Remus were not holding hands.

"Nice try," whispered Tonks.

"That bloody, stubborn..." murmured Sirius, angrily biting into a cauldron cake.

"Hope you didn't have too much fun before we got back," said Remus, returning with a glass of pumpkin juice for himself and one for Tonks. She took it and had to hold back the urge to toss it all in his smug face. Then she got an even better idea.

"Oh, Sirius, do you recall a certain Halloween night where you dressed up as a centaur?"

The effect was amazing. Sirius' face lit up in a cross between a smile and a smirk. At the same time, Remus' face got so red that Tonks though he would burst. She smiled to herself, handed her juice to Remus and said, "I think it's time for me to turn in. But be sure to enlighten everyone in this kitchen about that particular story, dear cousin."

"Aye, aye, Captain Tonks!" said Sirius, giving her a mock salute.

With that, Tonks sauntered out of the kitchen. Remus watched her go and winced when she hit her leg on the doorjamb. He waited until he heard her bedroom door slam on the landing before turning to Sirius.

"So, was that your bright idea?" he asked, angrily.

"Well, I like to think it was a joint effort of the entire Order," said Sirius, leaning back on the table. "But it was mostly my idea, yes."

"I thought I told you I didn't want to be fixed up," said Remus. "Least of all with your cousin."

"Moony, please, do not insult my intelligence." Sirius took a swig of his pumpkin juice and stared at Remus. "What?"

"Sorry," said Remus. "I was just thinking how many adjectives it would take to insult your intelligence. I think one would suffice."

"Hey!" cried Sirius indignantly. "Look, don't try to change the subject. The point is that you can't fool me. I see the way you steal glances at her when you're doing your crossword or drinking your tea."

Remus had to blush at this accusation. "I do not."

"Yes, you do. And I don't blame you. Tonks is a young, pretty witch."

"Exactly, she's young. She's much too young for me, that's for sure. She'd never go for an old man like me."

"So you do wish she'd go for you?"

"No! I mean...Sirius, why must you always make such a mess of things?"

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about." said Sirius, starting to walk away. Before he got more than a foot away, he spun back around and looked at Remus so maniacally that  
Remus actually recoiled.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" he asked, checking the exits.

"I've just remembered, there's still the matter of the centaur story!"

"Oh, dear," said Remus. "No, no, I think we can settle that. You don't tell it or I'll tell the story of when you dressed up as a drag queen for Halloween."

Sirius froze, his eyes wide. "You wouldn't!

"Ah, but I would."

"That's not fair! That was Firewhiskey-induced!"

"All's fair in love and Halloween stories."

"Pssh, what a load of crap," said Sirius. But he didn't tell the centaur story; he merely walked away to join a conversation between Moody and Kingsley.

Remus went on to mingle with some of the other Order members. The party was enjoyable overall, but Remus found himself wishing that Tonks had stayed. Perhaps he had been a bit of a git in the castle. It was a shame, he really did fancy her but he knew there was no way in hell she'd even consider going out with him. Well, he could dream.

-Fin-


End file.
